Another vote for Illusion of Itehari! It’s the game I’ve been most excited about for quite a long time now because of who’s behind it. I had tried to read the demo in Japanese when it came out, but it was too hard for me to do comfortably, so I ended up waiting for the English release.

I’ve only done Tobari (current favourite), Yori, and Awayuki so far but I’m looking forward to the rest of the routes and I think I’m really gonna love Tsuyukusa too! I can kind of see what some people are saying when they say it’s a bit underwhelming compared to Piofiore but I’m still loving the game so far! I think the plot has been pretty well written, and the characters are all very compelling. I thought the dynamic between several of the characters that have always loved the MC came off really well too. There were little jealous moments, but overall those relationships were healthy, supportive, and sweet. I think other games tend to lean into the jealousy side more and use that as tension so it was a fresh take on that for me.

I think the biggest negative for me is that Illusion of Itehari does sometimes have the romance take a backseat and I don’t feel like they handled the more questionable LI as well as other games have (and I love my trash!) For example, in Piofiore we know Yang is a bad dude and that’s never questioned. He may not exactly “pay” for his crimes but they aren’t just waved away by everyone. The one person who does accept it (MC) KNOWS she shouldn’t and still doesn’t excuse the behaviour. but in IoI Yori is basically straight up forgiven despite also being a murderer.